Turnabout Intruder - part 2
by BobH2
Summary: What if we didn't get the whole story?


"I don't like this, I don't like it at all," grumbled Leonard 'Bones' McCoy.

"You surprise me, Bones," I chuckled, familiar with the other man's temperament after years of serving alongside him.

"I'm serious, Jim. This technology was outlawed for a reason. No good can come of using a device Khan Noonien Singh had a hand in designing."

"The Eugenics Wars happened a long time ago."

"And we managed to get along just fine without using one of these infernal contraptions in the intervening years. We should carry on doing so. The damn things are evil."

"It's her choice, Bones," I said. "No one is forcing Janice Lester to undergo the process."

He merely grunted at this, and said no more as we continued along the corridor from where we'd beamed down from the Enterprise to the room where the procedure was to take place. Bones seemed even grumpier than usual - if such a thing was possible - and I wondered if this was a result of us being on Elba II again. The very need for an asylum planet where the Federation could keep the few remaining citizens that were too criminally insane to be treated even by our advanced medical technology had to weigh on a Doctor like him. We had previously visited this world less than a year ago, bringing drugs that it was hoped would cure the remaining inmates. Now we were returning with a device whose use in the past had been considered a war crime.

"Do you know how Captain Garth and the others are responding to the drugs we delivered last time we were here?" I asked Bones.

"Pretty well, according to the reports I've seen. When the course of treatment is done we should be able to close this facility down at last, and good riddance."

At the end of the corridor we were greeted by Donald Cory, planetary governor and director of this underground asylum, who shook our hands enthusiastically.

"Captain Kirk! Doctor McCoy!" he said, "it's really good to see you both again."

"You too, Governor," I said, "assuming it is you."

"Oh, it is," he chuckled, "this time."

During our last visit, Captain Garth had taken Cory's place, taken me prisoner, and attempted to seize control of the Enterprise.

Cory led us to a room in the center of which was a glass-walled chamber. In the center of that chamber was the device, which looked like a high-tech version of the barbaric electric chairs they had used to execute people back in the primitive hell that was the twentieth century. Strapped into it was Doctor Janice Lester. Catching sight of me she grinned.

And suddenly there she was again, the beautiful woman I had loved during the year we'd spent together at Starfleet. It had ended badly. I blamed myself, one more regret in a life that already held too many.

"I beamed down with the device earlier and set it up as you ordered, Captain," said a voice from behind me, "but I cannae say I approve."

"Noted, Scotty," I said, as the Enterprise's chief engineer came into view, "but we do what we must."

"Och, but brainwashing, Captain? You do know these things were used to overwrite the personalities of captured troops so that you could then turn them against their former allies?"

"I know my history, Mr Scott."

"Aye, well on your head be it then. I never thought I'd see the day when one of them would be used again."

Leaving Scotty at the door, Bones and I entered the chamber.

"Hello Jim, Doctor McCoy," said Janice.

"Are you absolutely sure you want to do this Doctor Lester?" asked Bones.

"I am," she confirmed, "absolutely. I wouldn't have requested it if I wasn't. And thank you for facilitating things, Jim. Starfleet wouldn't have even entertained the use of the device for this purpose if the request had come from anyone below the rank of Starship Captain."

"I owed you," I replied.

I doubt if anyone else would see it that way, but I did. I felt guilty about the way things had ended between us, at starting the long spiral into madness that had led to Janice and her lovestruck colleague Dr Arthur Coleman using that ancient alien machine on Camus II to swap our minds. She became me, I became her, and things might have stayed that way if I hadn't managed to somehow snap our minds back into our own bodies through sheer mental effort.

"I assume you're happy with the memory and personality template you created?" said Bones.

"Yes," said Janice. "It's a drastic solution, but I'm convinced that only by overwriting my current, destructive personality with a newer, better one can I truly be well again. I wouldn't be pursuing this path if I didn't. I spent a long time working on the template, creating a version of Janice Lester that's more submissive and feminine, one that revels in being a girl and desires nothing more than a strong man to make a home and start a family with."

"I guess that explains what you're wearing," I said.

Janice had on a tiny, barely-there dress, high heels, and full make up. This wasn't like the woman I'd known at all.

"I may not like it now," said Janice, staring down at herself with some distaste, "but after the process I'll love it. Instead of wanting to be a man, I'll want a man to carry me off to bed and have his way with me."

"You understand you'll need to be completely immobile for the process to work," said Bones. "The slightest movement could be extremely dangerous."

"The wrist-straps and head-strap are not enough by themselves, I know," replied Janice, "hence the paralytic. They've agreed to let me administer it myself when we're ready to start the process."

She opened her right hand to reveal the air syringe she was holding that would fire the drug into her wrist when she pressed the trigger.

"I see," said Bones, frowning. "The paralytic will immobilize you but though unable to move or speak you'll still be able to see and hear. Are you okay with that?"

"I am."

"Then I guess we're done here. I'm ready to certify that you fully understand what's about to happen, that you are submitting to the procedure of your own free will, and that you are mentally competent enough to do so."

"Thank you, Doctor. Would you mind giving me a minute or two alone with the Captain before we begin?"

"Of course. I'll step outside."

Bones left the cubicle, but he and Scotty watched us through the glass intently, alert for anything Janice might try - though what threat a woman securely strapped to a chair might pose I couldn't imagine.

"Just the two of us," smiled Janice, "alone again at last."

"What is it you want, Janice? An apology?"

"That would be nice but no, not an apology."

"Then what?"

"I want to know how Arthur is."

"Doctor Coleman? Your partner-in-crime finally goes on trial next week. You might have got off by reason of insanity, but he'll have to pay for his part in hijacking the Enterprise."

"He'd get a much shorter sentence if you spoke on his behalf, maybe even a suspended one."

"Probably, but why would I? Anyway, never mind him, what about you? For someone in an asylum you seem sane enough right now."

"I do, don't I? Funny, that."

"What you attempted was certainly crazy enough."

"I stole your body because I wanted to captain a starship, something Starfleet doesn't allow women to do. It's amazing that we've come so far technologically yet regressed socially. I think the feminists of previous centuries would be very disappointed in us."

"I agree," I said, "but these things tend to go in cycles - two steps forward, then one step back. There are already signs that things are changing again."

"I know, but too late for me. I'm out of Starfleet and I've missed my chance."

"You got to briefly captain the Enterprise when you were me," I said, "and you made a mess of it."

"True," she replied, "but I did so intentionally."

"What are you talking about?"

"When the machine on Camus II switched our minds it created a link between us that I knew would enable me to read your memories and absorb your skills. The catch was that this took time, and I wouldn't have what it took to command the Enterprise until then. I needed the mind switch to establish the link, but I couldn't fully take advantage of it until I'd had time to absorb all your knowledge. It's what used to be known as a classic catch-22. So I deliberately made a mess of things, acting like I'd completely lost control, and allowed you to temporarily switch us back."

"'Temporarily..?'"

"Yes. It was all an act, even my apparent attempt to strangle you after we swapped places. Once the switch has been made by the machine it can only be undone by the machine. We're still connected. We have been since I switched our minds on Camus II. I've now absorbed all the skills, memories and knowledge I need to take your place permanently, enough so that even with a Vulcan mind meld Mr Spock couldn't tell I wasn't you."

There was a brief hissing sound as Janice pressed the trigger that fired the paralysing drug into her veins, then I felt a moment of vertigo as the entire world seemed to momentarily lurch, everything turning white. When my vision cleared I was looking up into my own face, unable to move.

"Goodbye, Janice," said Janice Lester, now back in my body, "I hope you'll find happiness as the feminine, submissive woman you're about to become. I'll certainly be happy knowing that's who you are. I think it's going to look really good on you. And that's not all. Though Arthur Coleman was just a means to an end, someone whose help I needed, he does genuinely love me. So it seems only fair he should get the girl, should win the prize he worked so hard for. That's why for the new 'improved' Janice Lester personality I created he's her ideal man, while she's the Janice Lester he's always wanted. You're going to be his reward from me for his loyal service."

Try as I might I could not move a muscle and so had no way of signalling what had happened to those watching, or of expressing my rising panic. Seeing the fear in my eyes, Janice smirked and kissed me on the forehead. She then lowered the cowl of the device down over my head.

"Okay, Bones," she said, as she stepped through the cubicle door, "let's get this thing done so I can get back to the Captain's chair on the Enterprise, back to where I belong."

Unaware that anything was wrong, Bones remotely activated the device. Instantly, I felt alien thoughts, memories, and desires flooding into my mind and overwhelming my own, forcing them out.

If I could, I would have screamed.

"""""""""""""""

"Wake up, honey."

I was roused from my slumber by someone gently shaking my shoulder. I opened my eyes and smiled up into that familiar, craggy face.

"'Morning, Arthur," I said.

"'Morning, gorgeous," he replied, leaning down to kiss me.

I held his head when he did, and what he'd intended as a brief peck on the lips turned into something longer and more satisfying. Eventually he broke away, laughing.

"No fair," he said, "You're going to make me late for work! It may not be much of a job, but it's the only one I could get as a convicted felon, and I can't afford to lose it." Naked, he turned to his closet to pull out a clean uniform.

"The Enterprise is in the news again," he said. "Seems James Kirk got into an altercation with some Klingons on one of the Federation's border worlds. He came off best, of course."

"He always does."

"Yeah. I still can't get over him speaking up for me at my trial like he did. If not for him I'd now be serving time in a penal colony. And then he not only agreed to give you away at our wedding last year but selected and paid for your dress as a present. He told me he wanted you to be the most beautiful, most feminine bride anyone had ever seen, and you were. He really is a great guy."

"Yes, he is."

"Do you ever regret what's happened, Janice, being denied a life among the stars, I mean?"

"No, I'm happy here on Earth," I said, "being a home-maker and being with you. I think maybe it's what I was meant to be."

I laid a hand on my distended stomach, smiling happily.

"And in a few weeks time I'll be a mother."

I could hardly wait.

""""""""""""""

THE END.

_Note:_

_A sequel to this tale, THE SECOND LIFE OF JANICE LESTER, has already been written and will be posted here shortly._


End file.
